National Post (National Edition)
‘The road to dictatorship’
PRO-GOVERNMENT TOP COURT SHUTS DOWN PARLIAMENT IN ‘SELF-INFLICTED’ COUP
Security forces violently repressed protests that broke out in Venezuela’s capital on Friday with fears mounting around the world that the troubled country was sliding towards a dictatorship.
Protesters took to the streets, blocking motorways and chanting for President Nicolas Maduro’s removal after the progovernment Supreme Court shut down parliament.
National guardsmen in riot gear fired buckshot and swung batons at a small group of students who gathered outside the Supreme Court after it ruled that the National Assembly was “in contempt” of the country’s laws and could no longer sit in session.
Several protesters were arrested and some journalists covering the demonstration had their cameras seized by the police before the group reassembled elsewhere.
In a surprise pronouncement, Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz, normally a government loyalist, said it was her “unavoidable historical duty” as a Venezuelan citizen and the nation’s top judicial authority to denounce what she called the Supreme Court’s “rupture” of the constitutional order.
“We call for reflection, so that the democratic path can be retaken,” she said to the loud applause of several aides gathered around her.
“This isn’t any old sentence. It marks a point of no return on the road to dictatorship,” said Freddy Guevara, the National Assembly’s deputy leader.
The assembly has been controlled by opponents of Maduro since December 2015 and has fought to find legal measures to oust the embattled leader, who presides over a nation crippled by food shortages, soaring crime and triple-digit inflation.
Governments across Latin America condemned the power grab, which the head of the Organization of American States likened to a “self-inflicted coup” by the socialist Maduro. The United Nations’ top human rights official expressed “grave concern” and called on the high court to reverse its decision.
The Supreme Court ruled late Wednesday that as long as lawmakers remained in contempt of court rulings that nullified all legislation passed by the chamber, the high court, or an institution it designates, can assume the constitutionally assigned powers of the National Assembly.
The ruling and another earlier in the week limiting lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution capped a feud that began when the long-marginalized opposition won control of the legislature by a landslide and then mounted a campaign to force Maduro from office. The leftist leader responded by relying on the Supreme Court to unseat several lawmakers and then routinely nullify all legislation voted there.
“What we’ve lived the last few hours has to be called what it is: a coup and an attempt to instil a dictatorship in Venezuela,” National Assembly President Julio Borges said at a news conference Friday in which he announced that lawmakers had appealed the ruling to Ortega Diaz’s office.
The decision triggered a frenzy of diplomatic activity, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where foreign ministers of the Mercosur trade bloc were to gather Saturday to discuss the crisis, to Washington, where the OAS secretary general called for an emergency meeting.
Peru’s government recalled its ambassador in protest of what it called “a flagrant break in the democratic order.” And the presidents of Chile and Colombia, who have been reluctant to openly criticize Maduro, said they were deeply worried by the ruling and also ordered their ambassadors to return home for consultations.
The U.S. State Department reiterated its call for Maduro to free political prisoners and hold immediate elections to resolve the crisis, saying the decision to “usurp” the National Assembly’s powers represented a “serious setback for democracy in Venezuela.”
Some hardliners in the opposition called for the military, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela, to intervene. So far the armed forces, which has seen its power expand dramatically under Maduro, has remained silent.
Despite the sporadic flareups Friday it wasn’t clear if critics of the government were in the mood for another street fight after past attempts fizzled or ended in bloodshed with little to show. Weeks of unrest in 2014 resulted in more than 40 deaths and dozens of arrests, while a mass protest last September was followed by authorities a few days later cancelling a recall petition campaign seeking to force Maduro from office before his term ends in 2019.
What could be different this time is that Venezuela’s economy is on its knees.
The most recent survey on living standards by three major universities found that 93 per cent of Venezuelans at the end of last year said they didn’t have enough money to buy food, making do instead by skipping meals and eating less. The National Assembly previously passed a resolution declaring a “humanitarian crisis.”
Maduro has declared a “bread war,” with the government taking over some bakeries after accusing bakers of hoarding flour.
Most economists blame the problems on price controls that have spread across industries since they were introduced by Hugo Chavez more than a decade ago to combat opposition-owned businesses that supported a national strike trying to force him from office.
CHIEF PROSECUTOR LUISA ORTEGA DIAZ SAID IT WAS HER ‘UNAVOIDABLE HISTORICAL DUTY’ AS A VENEZUELAN CITIZEN AND THE NATION’S TOP JUDICIAL AUTHORITY TO DENOUNCE THE SUPREME COURT’S ‘RUPTURE’ OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER.